The National Institutes of Health (NIH) will repay
your outstanding student loans through its extramural Loan Repayment
Programs (LRPs) if you are or will be conducting nonprofit biomedical
or behavioral research and meet eligibility requirements. The application
cycle for the extramural LRPs opened September 1 and includes programs
for Clinical Research, Pediatric Research, Health Disparities Research,
Contraception and Infertility Research, and Clinical Research for Individuals
from Disadvantaged Backgrounds. Applications will be accepted online
until 8:00 PM on December 1, 2009 at www.lrp.nih.gov.

BENEFITS: New LRP contracts are awarded
for a two-year period and repay up to $35,000 of qualified educational
debt annually. Tax offsets also are provided as an additional benefit.
Participants may apply for competitive renewals which are issued for
one or two years. Undergraduate, graduate, medical school, and other
health professional school loans qualify for repayment. An NIH grant
or other NIH funding is not required to apply for or participate in
the LRPs.

ELIGIBILITY: Applicants must possess a
doctoral-level degree (except for the Contraception and Infertility
Research LRP); be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident; devote 20 hours
or more per week to conducting qualified research funded by a university,
nonprofit organization, or federal, state, or local government entity;
and have qualified educational loan debt equal to or exceeding 20 percent
of their institutional base salary.

AWARDS: Each year, some 1,600 research
scientists benefit from the more than $70 million NIH invests in their
careers through the extramural LRPs. Twenty-six percent of awards
are made to individuals within one to five years after receiving their
doctoral degree. More than 75 percent of awards go to individuals
within 10 years after receiving their doctoral degree. Approximately
40 percent of new applications and 70 percent of renewal applications
are funded.

QUESTIONS? Visit the LRP website
at www.lrp.nih.gov for
more information and to access the online application. For additional
assistance, call or e-mail the DLR Information Center at (866) 849-4047
or lrp@nih.gov.